Mobile dashboard for automated contact center testing

ABSTRACT

A mobile dashboard for automated contact center testing gives up-to-the-minute status reports on your customer experience, enabling you to make operational decisions and drill down to the source of an issue while on the go. A mobile-optimized executive dashboard display can be customized for each unique user, so business and technical stakeholders can filter the display for the customer experience (CX) metrics that are most relevant to them, and configure push notification alerts accordingly.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 62/510,141, titled “AUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER TESTING MOBILEDASHBOARD” and filed on May 23, 2017, and is also a continuation-in-partof U.S. application Ser. No. 15/789,667, titled “AUTOMATED CONTACTCENTER CUSTOMER MOBILE DEVICE CLIENT INFRASTUCTURE TESTING” and filed onOct. 20, 2017, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional applicationSer. No. 62/491,258, titled “AUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER AGENT MOBILEDEVICE CLIENT INFRASTUCTURE TESTING” and filed on Apr. 28, 2017, and isalso a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/613,168titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER AGENT WORKSTATIONTESTING”, filed on Jun. 3, 2017, which claims benefit of U.S.provisional application 62/491,252, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORAUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER AGENT WORKSTATION TESTING” and filed on Apr.28, 2017, which is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.No. 15/491,965, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED THIN CLIENTCONTACT CENTER AGENT DESKTOP TESTING” and filed on Apr. 19, 2017, whichis a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/083,259titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED END-TO-END WEB INTERACTIONTESTING”, filed on Mar. 28, 2016, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/854,023, titled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR AUTOMATED CHAT TESTING”, filed on Sep. 14, 2015, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/141,424 titled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CHAT TESTING”, filed on Dec. 27, 2013,now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,137,184 on Sep. 15, 2015, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/936,186 titled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CHAT TESTING”, filed on Jul. 6, 2013,and is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/644,343 titled “INTEGRATED TESTING PLATFORM FOR CONTACT CENTRES”,filed on Dec. 22, 2009, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,625,772 on Jan. 7,2014, and is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/567,089 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED ADAPTATION ANDIMPROVEMENT OF SPEAKER AUTHENTICATION IN A VOICE BIOMETRIC SYSTEMENVIRONMENT”, filed on Aug. 6, 2012, and is also a continuation-in-partof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/140,449 titled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR AUTOMATED CHAT TESTING”, filed on Dec. 24, 2013, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 9,137,183 on Sep. 15, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/936,147 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORAUTOMATED CHAT TESTING”, filed on Jul. 6, 2013, the entirespecifications of each of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.15/789,667, titled “AUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER CUSTOMER MOBILE DEVICECLIENT INFRASTUCTURE TESTING” and filed on Oct. 20, 2017, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/613,168 titled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CONTACT CENTER AGENT WORKSTATIONTESTING”, filed on Jun. 3, 2017, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 15/491,965, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATEDTHIN CLIENT CONTACT CENTER AGENT DESKTOP TESTING” and filed on Apr. 19,2017, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/157,384 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED VOICE QUALITYTESTING”, filed on May 17, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/709,252 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATEDVOICE QUALITY TESTING”, filed on May 11, 2015, now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 9,344,556 on May 17, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/140,470 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATEDVOICE QUALITY TESTING”, filed on Dec. 25, 2013, now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 9,031,221 on May 12, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/936,183 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATEDVOICE QUALITY TESTING”, filed on Jul. 6, 2013, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/644,343titled “INTEGRATED TESTING PLATFORM FOR CONTACT CENTRES”, filed on Dec.22, 2009, the entire specifications of each of which are incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of system testing, and moreparticularly to the field of providing a mobile dashboard for monitoringautomated quality assurance testing of contact center infrastructure,particularly during production operations.

Discussion of the State of the Art

As contact center software solutions, whether a single monolithicservice or a set multiple service offerings from a number of vendorswhich together perform all needed tasks, have become more complex, sohave systems and techniques to needed monitor and test them. The abilityto qualify new software versions and variants on the entire range ofhardware types expected to be deployed, to qualify new hardware orsoftware combinations as they arise, or to monitor functional efficiencyduring events of unacceptable responsiveness under conditions mimickingthe actual live usage, has become much more important. These types oftest software, running on either dedicated equipment or on liveequipment under instances of low live traffic are now available, but arecurrently inflexible in deployment, requiring significant preplanningand hardware resources, lack the ability to test function of importantemerging system configurations such as those that include mobile devicesas endpoints of interaction, have little modification capability whilerunning, lack the ability to run unobtrusively, and thus cannot be usedto diagnose problems encountered during actual call center use, haveinflexible result reporting abilities and require a significant amountof programming knowledge to administer.

What is needed are computer service package testing suites that are easyand flexible to deploy, that accept modifications without the use ofcomplex procedures while running, that have highly configurable andeasily specified reporting formats, that can be deployed through acentralized gateway using simplified runtime commands instead ofprogramming changes to the suites' source code themselves and that canbe used to test a wide range of both software and hardware combinationsin use, including mobile devices. It is further needed that executivesand operational managers are able to monitor ongoing testing of contactcenter infrastructure and operations while mobile.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, amobile dashboard for automated contact center testing.

According to one aspect, a system for a mobile dashboard for automatedcontact center testing, comprising: a dashboard server comprising atleast a processor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructionsstored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein theprogrammable instructions, when operating on the processor, cause theprocessor to: receive system data from a plurality of connected systems,the data comprising at least a test case result; operate a dashboardapplication accessible via a network; present at least a portion of thesystem data for viewing via the dashboard application; a notificationhub comprising at least another processor, another memory, and aplurality of programming instructions stored in the another memory andoperating on the another processor, wherein the programmableinstructions, when operating on the another processor, cause the anotherprocessor to: receive at least a device identifier from a mobile devicevia a network; receive update data from a dashboard server; transmit atleast a notification to the mobile device using the device identifier,the notification being based at least in part on the update datareceived from the dashboard server, is disclosed.

According to another aspect, a method for operating a mobile dashboardfor automated contact center testing, comprising the steps of:receiving, at a dashboard server comprising at least a processor, amemory, and a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memoryand operating on the processor, system data from a plurality ofconnected systems, the data comprising at least a test case result;operating a dashboard application accessible via a network; presentingat least a portion of the system data for viewing via the dashboardapplication; receiving, at a notification hub comprising at leastanother processor, another memory, and a plurality of programminginstructions stored in the another memory and operating on the anotherprocessor, at least a device identifier from a mobile device via anetwork; receiving update data from a dashboard server; and transmittingat least a notification to the mobile device using the deviceidentifier, the notification being based at least in part on the updatedata received from the dashboard server, is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture foroperating a mobile dashboard for automated contact center testing,according to an aspect.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for operating a mobiledashboard for automated contact center testing, according to an aspect.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary screen of a mobile dashboardapp, according to an aspect.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing an urgent alertnotification overlaying a mobile device home screen, according to anaspect.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard login window, according to an aspect.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app with an urgent alert notification, according to an aspect.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app urgent alert response dialog, according to an aspect.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app urgent alert drilldown window, according to an aspect.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app test case drilldown window, according to an aspect.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app settings window, according to an aspect.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 14 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 15 (PRIOR ART) is a typical system architecture diagram of acontact center including components commonly known in the art.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor an automated contact center test engine with a mobile dashboard app,according to a preferred embodiment of the invention

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a mobile dashboardfor automated contact center testing.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture 100 foroperating a mobile dashboard for automated contact center testing,according to an aspect. According to the aspect, a customer's mobiledevice 102 may connect via a network 101 to a dashboard server 103 andlog in to an account, retrieving available information and notificationsfor the account and viewing a dashboard application linked to theaccount (as described below, referring to FIGS. 3-10). Mobile device 102may also connect to a notification hub 104 to register fornotifications, which may be produced by notification hub 104 based oninformation received from dashboard server 103 and sent via a messagingserver 105 for transmission to device 102 even when it is not currentlyconnected to dashboard server 103 or viewing a dashboard application.Dashboard server 103 may provide a dashboard application for viewing viaa network 101, for example as a web-accessible site for viewing througha browser or a specially-constructed app installed on the device 102, oras an internal resource accessible through a virtual private network(VPN) connection for enterprise users to access remotely when they arenot on the corporate intranet. Dashboard server 103 may broadcastinformation such as status changes or notification alerts tonotification hub 104 for use in producing notifications to send todevice 102. When sending notifications, notification hub 104 may use avendor-operated messaging server 105 (such as for APPLE IMESSAGE™) tolook up a registered device and send a notification via the messagingserver 105 to the appropriate device 102.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 200 for operating amobile dashboard for automated contact center testing, according to anaspect. In an initial step 201, a mobile device 102 may connect to adashboard server 103 and log in to an account. In a next step 202,mobile device 102 may view a dashboard application and receive initialdashboard information such as status messages and notifications fromdashboard server 103. In a next step 203, mobile device 102 may registerwith a notification hub 104 for notification alerts, enabling thereceipt of alerts without a connection to dashboard server 103 by usingexisting communication methods such as SMS or web-based messaging, thatmay be sent to mobile device 102 via a network 101 without an activeconnection to dashboard server 103 or an active dashboard applicationinstance. In a next step 204, dashboard server 103 may send informationupdates to notification hub 104, which may then 205 look up registeredmobile devices 102 that may be associated with a received update (forexample, an IT administrator's device that is registered to receiveoutage alerts for a particular server), and may then 206 sendappropriate notifications to any registered devices found. When a mobiledevice 102 receives a notification 207, it may then retrieve updatedinformation 208 from dashboard server 103, for example by refreshing anidle dashboard display or retrieving new information in the backgroundso that the next time the dashboard is viewed or brought to theforeground, it will reflect the most recent information available(rather than displaying the information available when it was lastviewed, requiring a manual refresh to fetch new information at thattime).

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 300 of a mobiledashboard app 292, according to an aspect. According to the aspect, amobile dashboard 300 may comprise a software application 292 operatingon a user's mobile device 291 to present information and optionallyreceive input from a user such as via a touchscreen hardware interfaceof a user's mobile device 291, and may comprise a modified version of anexecutive dashboard displayed on, for example, a contact centerwallboard or large screen display. Mobile dashboard 300 may be used toprovide an easy to read visual representation of various contact centeroperation data collected by a dashboard server 290, for exampleincluding (but not limited to) relevant test case results from a currentoperational testing program. Each screen, such as that shown in FIG. 3,may present data corresponding to one or more particular service groups(for example, according to the present aspect, “AA Business”, “AAInvestment”, “AA Personal”, and “AA Retail”).

Visual indicia 310 a-n may be presented to display the result of theexecution of a test case (or test cases) from a test campaign, based ona specific category of test. These indicia 310 a-n may be used torepresent successful tests 310 a, failed tests 310 b, or satisfactorytests that passed but have one or more warnings or conditions 310 n thatmay require attention (for example, if an operational threshold is notexceeded, but is nearly exceeded, a test may have passed, but with acaution or warning). For each service group 311 a-n, generic categoriesmay be predefined to display various aspects of a test case result. Forexample, a category could be “Answering” 311 a, and a checkmark mayindicate a test call answered correctly (indicating that step 0 wassuccessful), while an “X” indicator may mean a test call was notanswered correctly (i.e. Step 0 was unsuccessful). In another example, acategory could be “Correct Prompts” 311 b, wherein a checkmark meansspeech recognition results in all test case steps were above a minorconfidence threshold, while an “X” means speech recognition results in atest case step were below a major confidence threshold, and “!” may meanspeech recognition results in a test case step were within asatisfactory range as defined with a major/minor confidence threshold).The number, identities, and arrangement of categories, indicia orresults displayed may vary and may be configured by an administrator viadashboard server 290. According to some arrangements, an overallpercentage score for a service group may optionally be computed (eitherby dashboard server 290 or by a specific instance of mobile dashboardapplication 292).

According to an aspect, a dashboard gives up-to-the-minute statusreports on your customer experience, enabling you to make operationaldecisions and drill down to the source of an issue while on the go. Amobile-optimized executive dashboard display can be customized for eachunique user, so business and technical stakeholders can filter thedisplay for the customer experience (CX) metrics that are most relevantto them, and configure push notification alerts accordingly.

Built on top of an easy-to-use and intuitive CX testing and monitoringproduct on the market, described below with respect to FIG. 2, themobile dashboard also provides the ability to look at CX failures anddelays in detail and even listen to calls so you can hear what wentwrong. A ticker feature built into the mobile dashboard improves teamcommunication and drives faster incident response and resolution byshowing relevant messages to stakeholders across the business. Themobile dashboard can be configured to monitor other vendors' systemsthrough REST API calls.

The mobile dashboard may be implemented as an extension of an executivedashboard system such as those used in wallboards and web-basedinterfaces, according to the art, extending the functionality of suchexecutive dashboards by making personally-configurable dashboardapplications available on mobile devices. The mobile dashboards receivereal-time test results from contact center monitoring and testingsystems, and provide ticker-style real-time notifications of test eventsthat may require attention.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 400 showing an urgentalert notification 410 overlaying a mobile device home screen 400,according to an aspect. Alerts may be sent by dashboard server 290 basedon configured criteria or thresholds, such as (for example) whenever atest case fails or when a service group's aggregate performance fallsbelow a threshold, or in other test failure situations. When an alert isreceived at a mobile device 291, a notification 410 may be displayed toalert the user, optionally presenting details of the alert conditionssuch as (for example) a service group or failure type. In somearrangements, notification 410 may be interactive, offering a user quickactions that may be triggered by interacting with their device 291, suchas by taping or swiping, for example to acknowledge the alert or to takea preconfigured action in response to the alert.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 500 showing a mobiledashboard login window, according to an aspect. According to the aspect,a user may use their mobile device 291 to log into a mobile dashboardapp, providing their login credentials via a login screen 500.Credentials may include, but are not limited to, a user's uniqueusername 502 and password 503, as well as optionally a server or site501 to specify a particular site or dashboard they wish to access. Forexample, a user may have access to multiple site dashboards and selectwhich one they wish to view at a particular time, such as to monitordifferent sites throughout the day (for example, for IT or securitypersonnel), or to monitor different dashboards on different mobiledevices 291 using a single user account (using the same username 502 andpassword 503 on each device, but with different server/site 501specified).

FIG. 6 is an illustration of an exemplary screen showing a mobiledashboard app 300 with an urgent alert notification 410, according to anaspect. According to the aspect, an alert 410 may be presented within adashboard application 300, overlaying alert information over the currentscreen in the dashboard to bring alert information to the foreground,prompting the user's attention. For example, while a user is monitoringservice groups in dashboard 300, if an event that requires immediateattention occurs (such as a failure threshold being met, for example), anotification 410 may be overlaid on the service group screen, ensuringthe user is aware of the alert so they may take any necessary action. Aswith home screen notifications 410 as described previously (referring toFIG. 4), immediate actions may optionally be available via tapping orswiping on the notification 410 or otherwise interacting with the mobiledevice 291.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 700 showing a mobiledashboard app urgent alert response dialog 710, according to an aspect.According to the aspect, an alert response dialog 710 may be presentedwhen a user responds to an urgent alert notification 410 (as describedpreviously, in FIG. 4 and FIG. 6), to inform other users who may havereceived the original notification 410 that it is being addressed.Response dialog 710 may optionally include information from the originalalert such as a service group or failure count, as well as informationpertaining to the response such as the timestamp for the response, oruser information to identify who is responding to the alert.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 800 showing a mobiledashboard app urgent alert drilldown window 810, according to an aspect.According to the aspect, a drilldown window 810 may present detailedinformation for an urgent alert, exposing additional information toassist a user monitoring the dashboard app on the mobile device 291. Adrilldown may show a summary of the failure event 811, for examplebriefly describing the cause of failure, while more detailed steps andtheir individual resolutions may be displayed 812 a-n for individualreview. At a failed step, additional failure details may be shown 813 toaid the user in identifying the specific cause of failure when possible.A user may then interact (for example, tapping or clicking) with theirmobile device 291 to bring up a detailed test case drilldown window 910,as described below in FIG. 9, to examine the failed test case stepfurther.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 900 showing a mobiledashboard app test case drilldown window 910, according to an aspect.According to the aspect, a test case drilldown window 910 may be viewedfrom an alert drilldown window 810 by interacting with a specific testcase in the dashboard app interface, to view or interact with additionaltest case details. The drilldown 910 may display the result 911 of thetest case execution, as well as detailed comments 912 concerning thenature of the result (for example, the reason for a test failure result,as shown in this aspect). Additional test case details may be shown,such as the duration 913 and response time 914 for an agent interaction,pause time thresholds 915, or minimum and maximum threshold times 916according to a current metric configuration in use.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary screen 1000 showing a mobiledashboard app settings window 1010, according to an aspect. According tothe aspect, a user may configure settings for a dashboard app on theirmobile device 291 using the settings interface window 1010, configuringper-user or per-device settings as needed for monitoring and interactionwith the dashboard and alert notifications. Options may be provided fora user to input or alter their account information such as theirusername 1011 or to view their connected accounts 1012 (for example, ifa user has access to multiple sites, as described previously in FIG. 5),as well as to logout 1014 from their current account. A user may alsoconfigure notification preferences 1013, for example to decide whichnotifications they wish to receive or how/when to present them (forexample, to disable home or lock screen notifications, or to modifynotification persistence settings for missed notifications). Dashboardsettings may be modified, which may directly modify the appearance orbehavior of the user's particular instance of the dashboard applicationon their device 291. Exemplary dashboard settings may include (but arenot limited to), setting a time window for data to be presented 1015 toselect how much data to display at one time on the dashboard, setting anerror threshold 1016 to determine the conditions of a failure alert forany particular test case, selecting whether or not to view live updates1017 to determine whether a user is viewing historical or snapshot data(that is, the data presented is not changing in real-time) or whetherthey are viewing a live display of information as it changes, or toselect the refresh speed 1018 of an information ticker, to determine howquickly the information presented changes while being viewed.

FIG. 15 (PRIOR ART) is a typical system architecture diagram of acontact center 1500, known to the art. A contact center is similar to acall center, but a contact center has more features. While a call centeronly communicates by voice, a contact center adds email, text chat suchas but not limited to instant messaging, social media posts and SMSinteraction, and web interfaces to voice communication in order tofacilitate communications between a customer endpoint 1510, and aresource endpoint 1520, through a network 1530, by way of at least oneinterface, such as a text channel 1540 or a multimedia channel 1545which communicates with a plurality of contact center components 1550. Acontact center 1500 is often operated through an extensive openworkspace for agents with work stations that may include a desktopcomputer 1525 or laptop 1524 for each resource 1520, along with atelephone 1521 connected to a telecom switch, a mobile smartphone 1522,and/or a tablet 1523. A contact center enterprise may be independentlyoperated or networked with additional centers, often linked to acorporate computer network 1530. Resources are often referred to asagents, but for inside sales, for example, they may be referred to assales representatives, or in other cases they may be referred to asservice representatives, or collection agents, etc. Resource devices1520 may communicate in a plurality of ways, and need not be limited toa sole communication process. Resource devices 1520 may be remote orin-house in a contact center, or out-sourced to a third party, orworking from home. They handle communications with customers 1510 onbehalf of an enterprise. Resource devices 1520 may communicate by use ofany known form of communication known in the art be it by a telephone1521, a mobile smartphone 1522, a tablet 1523, a laptop 1524, or adesktop computer 1525, to name a few examples. Similarly, customers 1510may communicate in a plurality of ways, and need not be limited to asole communication process. Customer devices 1510 may communicate by useof any known form of communication known in the art, be it by atelephone 1511, a mobile smartphone 1512, a tablet 1513, a laptop 1514,or a desktop computer 1515, to name a few examples. Communications bytelephone may transpire across different network types, such as publicswitched telephone networks, PSTN 1531, or via an internet network 1532for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony. Similarly, VoIP orweb-enabled calls may utilize a Wide Area Network (WAN) 1533 or a LargeArea Network 1534 to terminate on a media server 1546. Network types areprovided by way of example, only, and should not be assumed to be theonly types of networks used for communications. Further, resourcedevices 1520 and customer devices 1510 may communicate with each otherand with backend services via networks 1530. For example, a customercalling on telephone handset 1511 may connect through PSTN 1531 andterminate on a private branch exchange, PBX 1547, which is a type ofmultimedia channel 1545. A video call originating from a tablet 1523 mayconnect through an internet connection 1532 and terminate on a mediaserver 1546. A customer device such as a smartphone 1512 may connect viaa WAN 1533, and terminate on an interactive voice response unit, IVR1548, such as in the case of a customer calling a customer support linefor a bank or a utility service. Text channels 1540, may comprise socialmedia 1541, email 1542, SMS 1543 or as another form of text chat, IM1544, and would communicate with their counterparts, each respectivelybeing social server 1559, email server 1557, SMS server 1560, and IMserver 1558. Multimedia channels 1545 may comprise at least one mediaserver 1546, PBX 1547, IVR 1548, and/or BOTS 1549. Text channels 1540and multimedia channels 1545 may act as third parties to engage withoutside social media services and so a social server 1559 inside thecontact center will be required to interact with the third party socialmedia 1541. In another example, an email server 1557 would be owned bythe contact center 1500 and would be used to communicate with a thirdparty email channel 1542. The multimedia channels 1545, such as mediaserver 1546, PBX 1547, IVR 1548, and BOTS 1549, are typically present inan enterprise's datacenter, but could be hosted in a remote facility orin a cloud facility or in a multifunction service facility. The numberof communication possibilities are vast between the number of possibleresource devices 1520, customer devices 1510, networks 1530, channels1540/1545, and contact center components 1550, hence the system diagramon FIG. 15 indicates connections between delineated groups rather thanindividual connections for clarity.

Continuing on FIG. 15 (PRIOR ART), shown to the right of text channels1540, and multimedia channels 1545, are a series of contact centercomponents 1550, including servers, databases, and other key modulesthat may be present in a typical contact center, and may work in a blackbox environment, and may be used collectively in one location or may bespread over a plurality of locations, or even be cloud-based, and morethan one of each component shown may be present in a single location ormay be cloud-based or may be in a plurality of locations or premises.Contact center components 1550, may comprise a routing server 1551, aSIP server 1552, an outbound server 1553, a computer telephonyintegration server CTI 1554, a state and statistics server (also knownand referred to herein as a STAT server) 1555, an automated calldistribution facility, ACD 1556, an email server 1557, an IM server1558, a social server 1559, a SMS server 1560, a routing database 1570,a historical database 1572, and a campaign database 1571. It is possiblethat other servers and databases may exist within a contact center, butin this example, the referenced components are used. Continuing with theexample given above, in some conditions where a single medium (such asordinary telephone calls) is used for interactions that require routing,media server 1546 may be more specifically a private branch exchange(PBX) 1547, automated call distributor (ACD) 1556, or similarmedia-specific switching system. Generally, when interactions arrive atmedia server 1546, a route request, or a variation of a route request(for example, a SIP invite message), is sent to session initiationprotocol SIP server 1552, or to an equivalent system such as a computertelephony integration (CTI) server 1554. A route request is a datamessage sent from a media-handling device such as media server 1546 to asignaling system such as SIP server 1552, the message comprising arequest for one or more target destinations to which to send (or route,or deliver) the specific interaction with regard to which the routerequest was sent. SIP server 1552 or its equivalent may, in some cases,carry out any required routing logic itself, or it may forward the routerequest message to routing server 1551. Routing server 1551 executes,using statistical data from state and statistics server (STAT server)1555 and (at least optionally) data from routing database 1570, arouting script in response to the route request message and sends aresponse to media server 1546 directing it to route the interaction to aspecific target resource 1520. In another case, routing server 1551 useshistorical information from a historical database 1572, or real timeinformation from campaign database 1571, or both, as well asconfiguration information (generally available from a distributedconfiguration system, not shown for convenience) and information fromrouting database 1570. STAT server 1554 receives event notificationsfrom media server 1546 or SIP server 1552 (or both) regarding eventspertaining to a plurality of specific interactions handled by mediaserver 1546 or SIP server 1552 (or both), and STAT server 1555 computesone or more statistics for use in routing based on the received eventnotifications. Routing database 1570 may of course be comprised ofmultiple distinct databases, either stored in one database managementsystem or in separate database management systems. Examples of data thatmay normally be found in routing database 1570 may include (but are notlimited to): customer relationship management (CRM) data; datapertaining to one or more social networks (including, but not limited tonetwork graphs capturing social relationships within relevant socialnetworks, or media updates made by members of relevant social networks);skills data pertaining to a plurality of resources 1520 (which may behuman agents, automated software agents, interactive voice responsescripts, and so forth); data extracted from third party data sourcesincluding cloud-based data sources such as CRM and other data fromSALESFORCE.COM™, credit data from EXPERIAN™, consumer data fromDATA.COM™; or any other data that may be useful in making routingdecisions. It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in theart that there are many means of data integration known in the art, anyof which may be used to obtain data from premise-based, singlemachine-based, cloud-based, public or private data sources as needed,without departing from the scope of the invention. Using informationobtained from one or more of STAT server 1555, routing database 1570,campaign database 1572, historical database 1571, and any associatedconfiguration systems, routing server 1551 selects a routing target fromamong a plurality of available resource devices 1520, and routing server1551 then instructs SIP server 1552 to route the interaction in questionto the selected resource device 1520, and SIP server 1552 in turndirects media server 1546 to establish an appropriate connection betweencustomer devices 1510 and target resource device 1520. In this case, therouting script comprises at least the steps of generating a list of allpossible routing targets for the interaction regardless of the real-timestate of the routing targets using at least an interaction identifierand a plurality of data elements pertaining to the interaction, removinga subset of routing targets from the generated list based on the subsetof routing targets being logged out to obtain a modified list, computinga plurality of fitness parameters for each routing target in themodified list, sorting the modified list based on one or more of thefitness parameters using a sorting rule to obtain a sorted target list,and using a target selection rule to consider a plurality of routingtargets starting at the beginning of the sorted target list until arouting target is selected. It should be noted that customer devices1510 are generally, but not necessarily, associated with human customersor users. Nevertheless, it should be understood that routing of otherwork or interaction types is possible, although in any case, is limitedto act or change without input from a management team.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture1600 for an automated contact center test system comprising a mobiledashboard application 1692 operable on a mobile device 1691 comprisingat least a processor to operate mobile dashboard application 1692 and amemory to store mobile dashboard application 1692 and a dashboard server1690, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. According tothe embodiment, system 1600 may comprise an automated end-to-end contactcenter testing system 1681 operating on at least one network 1530, 1687as illustrated. A plurality of customers 1510 and network-connectedresources 1520 may connect to a contact center 1550 via a network 1530using a variety of specific communication means such as including (butnot limited to) text-based communication channels 1540 such as socialmedia networks 1541, email messages 1542, SMS messaging 1543 or IP-basedinstant messaging 1544, or via multimedia communication channels 1545such as via a media server 1546, a private branch exchange (PBX) 1547,an interactive voice response (IVR) system 1548, or via communicationbots 1549 that may automate or simulate communication (as may be usedfor testing purposes without relying on actual customer communication).Communication may occur over a variety of network types 1530, such as(again, including but not limited to) a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 1531, the Internet 1532 or other wide-area network (WAN)1533, or a local-area network (LAN) 1534, according to variousarrangements. For example, internal testing may occur exclusively withina LAN, while testing of online helpdesk interactions may useInternet-connected IM or email, or other arrangements.

A contact center may comprise a number of systems and features common inthe art, such as for example a routing server 1551 that directs othercomponents based on routing instructions from a routing database 1570 toroute interactions to appropriate handling endpoints (such as agents toanswer calls or IMs), a session initiation protocol (SIP) server 1552that handles SIP-based telephony, an outbound server 1553 that processesoutbound interaction attempts such as customer callbacks, state andstatistics server 1555 that manages internal contact center statemonitoring and statistics (for example, tracking interaction metricssuch as handle time, queue wait time, number of interactions handled ortransferred, and other various metrics that are commonly tracked incontact center operations), or an automated call distributor (ACD) thatmay be used to automatically distribute interactions to endpoints, (forexample based on customer input or agent skills). Additionally, avariety of interaction servers may be used to appropriately receive,process, and handle interactions such as a computer-telephonyintegration (CTI) server 1554 that may be used to connect telephony andcomputer-based or IP technologies, email server 1557 that may be used tohandle email-based interactions, instant messaging (IM) server 1558 thatmay be used to handle web-based instant messaging, social server 1559that may be used to handle content from social media networks (such ascommunicating directly with a social network's public API, for exampleto read and process content and user messages), or short message service(SMS) server 1560 that may be used to handle SMS-based text messages.Additionally, contact center campaign information (for example, metricgoals pertaining to a particular customer or campaign) may be stored ina campaign database 1571 for reference, and historical interactioninformation may be stored in an historical database 1572 such as tostore call recording for later reference or analysis. According to anaspect, dashboard server 1690 may be configured by properly authorizedusers, the configuration determining what information is available, inwhat form, for use in mobile dashboard applications 1692 operating onmobile devices 1691; once configured, dashboard server 1690 receivesdata in real time from the various other components of test system 1600,and in particular automated contact center test engine 1681, andtransmits the data, optionally aggregated and/or analyzed, to aplurality of mobile devices 1690 via a wireless network, for display ona plurality of mobile dashboard applications 1692.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 11, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some aspects, processors 13 may include speciallydesigned hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 11 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe aspects described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, a single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other aspects a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects,different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in asystem according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as atablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems(such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the aspects describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device aspects may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computingsystem. Referring now to FIG. 12, there is shown a block diagramdepicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects orcomponents thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device 20includes processors 21 that may run software that carry out one or morefunctions or applications of aspects, such as for example a clientapplication 24. Processors 21 may carry out computing instructions undercontrol of an operating system 22 such as, for example, a version ofMICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operatingsystems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operatingsystem, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services 23 maybe operable in system 20, and may be useful for providing commonservices to client applications 24. Services 23 may for example beWINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, orany other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable for receiving userinput, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (forexample, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or anycombination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any type suitable forproviding output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output,speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25 may berandom-access memory having any structure and architecture known in theart, for use by processors 21, for example to run software. Storagedevices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, orelectrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such asthose described above, referring to FIG. 11). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computingnetwork, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers.Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least a portion of asystem according to one aspect on a distributed computing network.According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Eachclient 33 may run software for implementing client-side portions of asystem; clients may comprise a system 20 such as that illustrated inFIG. 12. In addition, any number of servers 32 may be provided forhandling requests received from one or more clients 33. Clients 33 andservers 32 may communicate with one another via one or more electronicnetworks 31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 31 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers 32 may call external services 37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additionaldata concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37 may take place, for example, via one or more networks 31. In variousaspects, external services 37 may comprise web-enabled services orfunctionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. Forexample, in one aspect where client applications 24 are implemented on asmartphone or other electronic device, client applications 24 may obtaininformation stored in a server system 32 in the cloud or on an externalservice 37 deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's oruser's premises.

In some aspects, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use of oneor more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locallyor remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one or moredatabases 34 may be used or referred to by one or more aspects. Itshould be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art thatdatabases 34 may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures andusing a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example,in various aspects one or more databases 34 may comprise a relationaldatabase system using a structured query language (SQL), while othersmay comprise an alternative data storage technology such as thosereferred to in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™,GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems 36and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration management arecommon information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount ofeach are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods ofvarious aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/orserver components. For example, various software modules may beimplemented for performing various functions in connection with thesystem of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present inventionis defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for a mobile dashboard for automatedcontact center testing, comprising: a dashboard server comprising atleast a processor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructionsstored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein theprogrammable instructions, when operating on the processor, cause theprocessor to: receive system data from a plurality of connected systems,the data comprising at least a test case result; operate a dashboardapplication accessible via a network; present at least a portion of thesystem data for viewing via the dashboard application; a notificationhub comprising at least another processor, another memory, and aplurality of programming instructions stored in the another memory andoperating on the another processor, wherein the programmableinstructions, when operating on the another processor, cause the anotherprocessor to: receive at least a device identifier from a mobile devicevia a network; receive update data from a dashboard server; transmit atleast a notification to the mobile device using the device identifier,the notification being based at least in part on the update datareceived from the dashboard server.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe notification is transmitted to an external messaging server forrouting to a mobile device.
 3. A method for operating a mobile dashboardfor automated contact center testing, comprising the steps of:receiving, at a dashboard server comprising at least a processor, amemory, and a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memoryand operating on the processor, system data from a plurality ofconnected systems, the data comprising at least a test case result;operating a dashboard application accessible via a network; presentingat least a portion of the system data for viewing via the dashboardapplication; receiving, at a notification hub comprising at leastanother processor, another memory, and a plurality of programminginstructions stored in the another memory and operating on the anotherprocessor, at least a device identifier from a mobile device via anetwork; receiving update data from a dashboard server; and transmittingat least a notification to the mobile device using the deviceidentifier, the notification being based at least in part on the updatedata received from the dashboard server.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the notification is transmitted to an external messaging serverfor routing to a mobile device.